Browsing Posts tagged HHS Mandate

How Mad Is Obama?
He Not Only Takes Away Our Liberty Literally, But Also Figuratively:

Click to read more:

Tomorrow’s Headline: Head of Free World Shuts Down Liberty to Spite His Electorate for Rejecting Socialized Medicine

Doubt Obama realizes either the irony or the material for comedy and ridicule in this latest decision of his to shut down the Statue of Liberty.
The press should have a field day. That is, those who are not his lackies.

How Has Obama Shut Down Liberty in the United States?
Let me count the ways…

Outlawing Catholicism in the United States, or the HHS Mandate— faithful Catholics already cannot operate adoption agencies, soon will not be able to be employers, pharmacists, doctors, and will not be able to operate hospitals.

ObamaCare- the Game

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Yes, Jack LeFeber, an entrepreneur from Kentucky, is raising money to launch production of a game called ObamaCare – the Game..
He rewards contributions toward his cause with gifts – ObamaCare the Game magnets, coffee mugs and ObamaCare the Game Board Games (for $35 contribution), Delivery is estimated November of 2013, in time for Christmas.

You can either read the ObamaCare Bill and its ever-expanding regulation and risk an aneurysm, or you can buy this game instead (link to the actual law is provided, for reference while playing the game).

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Some Suggestions for the Inventor:

Players should also be able to choose Catholic as one of the game pieces.

The Missing Link–

Redefining How We Approach Politics

People are Flocking to Old Articles

This website, originally established to present a Catholic/conservative perspective to those who might be interested, seems to have recently become popular as an historical/political information resource.
Not my choice, but that of visitors, who are targeting very specific articles.

Visitors are flocking to articles written as long as two years ago, on topics such as the 2011 Madison Capitol Teacher’s protests, the 2012 Presidential election, the old Catholic Church abuse scandals, and articles on the subject of freedom OF religion versus freedom FROM religion. (Most visited articles listed below.)

Traffic continues to visit my website even during my attempted vacation (now), despite the noticeable reduction in new articles posted.

The website is also getting significant negative attention in the form of hacking attempts. We just survived a sophisticated Denial of Service (DoS) attack launched from computers in Europe.
(DoS attacks are usually reserved for much bigger potatoes than me, and they usually target large corporations and businesses. They are highly illegal, carry penalties of 10 years imprisonment, and are strictly forbidden by most nations.) So somebody seems to be pretty motivated to take this website down.

The Question

So the question becomes– in a world with no shortage of political pundits or religion experts, why are people reading articles written by me, Mrs. small potato, with no political or religious credentials, for information on politics and on religion? And why are those who disagree with me prepared to risk 10 years imprisonment to take me down?

Common Denominator

The common denominator among the most visited articles seems to be analysis of current political and cultural events from a religious and ethical perspective.

Yes, this blog violates the modern mandate of Separation of Church and State.
Here, the interconnection between God and the events of this modern world are analyzed and examined in a matter-of-fact and straightforward way. Our focus includes some common sense and some outside-the-box thinking– not surprising, because God always makes sense and God is always outside the box.

Apparently some readers are hungry for this approach.
Other readers want to shut the approach down.

In fact, the world makes much more sense when you add its Creator into the analysis.
And if including the Creator in political analysis makes sense, it makes even more sense to include the Creator in formulating political strategy.

How To Redefine Conservative Political Strategy after the November 2012 Fiasco?

There is little doubt that in 2013 conservative political strategy needs redefining; the Republican party seems on the verge of splitting, a split which could prove lethal to Republicans in the next election, and a split which did contribute to the Republican defeat in November 2012.

The Republican split is between the Party establishment, which has drifted increasingly over time toward compromise with the left and toward courting the “moderate” vote, and true conservatives, who adhere to conservative Judeo-Christian principles and to conservative fiscal strategy. True conservatives are pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-balanced budget, and pro-lots of common sense. The Establishment fears that such “extreme” (i.e., common sense) views may cause the party to lose votes.

Which way to go? How can we avoid a split? These are the questions being asked and this is why some seem to be returning to my brand of political analysis, which predicted, before November 2012, the chaos that would result from too much compromise with the left.

The Missing Link in Political Analysis and Strategy

Political strategists who steer local, national and global power games typically vie for support from every possible source. They court money, fame, popular culture, the support of organizations, churches, business and media, Hollywood, and the favor of groups, of women, of minorities, and of immigrants.

Rarely does it occur to politicians, and even to some religious politicians, to court the support of the Almighty.

Politicians Courting the Almighty

Therein lies the key to political success- courting assistance from the Almighty. Dubious as some may be about God’s involvement in human history, His involvement is quite apparent to those who remain open-minded.

When history is viewed from a perspective that does not automatically exclude the existence of God, God’s action in human history becomes obvious. The hand of God in human events is most obvious in those events which defy the laws of probability, in those events which accomplish far-reaching, perhaps even global results, where human effort seems to play little or small part in accomplishing the result, and in those events where politicians and battles play no significant role. Nobody anticipates the result, everyone is surprised by the result, the result is truly remarkable, and no fingerprints are left behind.
That is God’s style and His trademark.

Examples of such significant events which have shaped the course of human history, yet were not orchestrated by politicians, armies, or missionaries, include the Christianization (actually Catholicization) of Europe at the time of Constantine, the dismantling of the Soviet Union without battle at the time of President Regan and Pope John Paul the Great, and most recently, the commencement of the the self-destruction of what has sometimes been called the Imperial Presidency of Barack Obama. In recent months, in the absence of any action on the part of Barack Obama’s political opponents, scandal upon scandal has broken, and President Obama’s reputation and popularity are collapsing swiftly.

Including God in the Plan

There is, indeed, a God Who watches over us and participates in human activity, usually in very surprising and unexpected ways. So ignoring God, failing to court His support and ignoring His wishes should constitute a pretty big tactical error for political strategists, if God does exist. It would also be a pretty big tactical error for the 80% of America that prays not to pray for God’s help in restoring justice to our nation and to our world.

People can be so illogical.
90% of Americans believe in God, and they believe daily what CNN reporters report in the news, yet they forget that by definition the God they believe in would be powerful, good and involved with the world, and that it makes little sense to believe Anderson Cooper’s reports on events in Benghazi, while denying historical reports in a chronicle of God’s interaction with humanity, the Bible. So the lessons to be learned from biblical stories like the parting of the Red Sea, or David’s slaying of Goliath, are illustrations of God’s power and of the assistance He provides to those who, like Moses, or like David, have faith in God’s promises and act with great confidence on that faith. The same God, wielding the same power, is available to us today. If we were to act with the faith of Moses or of David (or of Constantine, Pope John Paul the Great and Ronald Regan), we can expect monumental results that defy all odds.

We might note that God’s mind rarely works the way ours do. In all the cases cited above, Moses, Goliath, the Christianization of Europe, the defeat of the Soviet Union, and the demise of Barack Obama’s reputation, human expectations did not line up at all with the surprises God provided.

So the missing key to dealing with politics includes remembering to put God into the plan, and then having the faith and the patience to watch Him work in His own time.

Planning Without God

In the absence of a God, if we were reliant solely on our own devices, it would become tempting to fight adversaries with their own tools. It would become tempting to sling mud back at our opponents, to court voters with promises of lollipops, to court moderate votes with continual compromise of our moral standards, and even to consider introducing a few lying and cheating Alinsky tactics of our own, when dealing with modern “progressive” opponents such as the Obama administration. How else can we win against the tactics presently being used against us?

Quite a few modern conservatives have fallen into this temptation, and have started compromising with the opposition. They fall for the fallacious argument that says compromising values will attract moderate voters. They fall for the fallacious argument that hand-outs will buy votes. They begin to walk away from their values, they compromise more-and-more, and they foolishly shift never-endingly toward the left.

The nomination of Mitt Romney was an example of such compromise, in which the Republican party split became very apparent, and in which frightened old school Republicans even violated their own convention rules. They forced through the nomination of Mitt Romney, instead of playing by the rules, instead of negotiating their way through a brokered convention, and instead of considering more than one nominee at the Republican Convention. They failed to realize that some greats like Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Regan were chosen under similar conditions, and that these conservative but previously unknown candidates had principles that were better able to defeat the incumbent Democrat President.

What does including God in politics look like?

When you remember to include God in the plan, you follow His rules, even in the face of overwhelming opposition and of Alinsky tactics, you pray, and you wait.
It takes a lot of faith, but it works.
God always comes through.

Your opposition would LOVE you to divorce politics from principled faith.
Divorcing politics from faith would have paralyzed Moses, David, Constantine, John Paul the Great, Regan, and now in 2013, divorcing politics from faith will paralyze us if we go in that direction.
Why do you think Lenin worked hard to exterminate religion and why do you think Obama is working so hard to paralyze the Catholic Church through the HHS Mandate?

When we succumb to the threats progressives make and we fall for their demands to violate God’s law, we compromise our values. To fight the devil with his own tools doesn’t work anyway, it boomerangs on us.

In nominating Mitt Romney, conservative and pro-life values were compromised, and Republican Convention rules were broken. Mitt Romney may be a very nice man. But he was not elected democratically at the Republican convention, and he does not personify the values of conservative America. Mitt Romney was a compromise with the left, a compromise some claimed was very similar to Barack Obama. The result was the alienation of true conservatives, and the alienation of numerous Tea Party activists. This alienation among conservatives was so pronounced that 3 million REGISTERED REPUBLICANS did not go to the polls in November of 2012.

Three million registered Republicans stayed home rather than vote for Mitt Romney, the man who refused to sign the Susan B. Anthony pro-life pledge, who had supported abortion and embryonic stem cell research in the past, and who now supports gay boy scout leaders and gay adoption. The man who created the blueprint for ObamaCare. The man whose nomination was pushed through by brute force at the Republican convention by the Party Establishment, against the wishes of numerous true conservatives. The man who did not represent the wishes of the people, and so 3 million people did not go to the polls in protest.

Three million votes added to the November 2012 totals would have won the election for Republicans. If the REGISTERED Republican voters whom the Republican establishment aliented with it’s shenanigans had gone to the polls on November 6, 2012, Barack Obama would no longer be President!

Selling out our values sure does boomerang on us.

What About Those of Us Who Prayed, Who Worked, Who Participated in Freedom of Religion rallies?

The prayers, the work, the Freedom of Religion rallies of 2011 and 2012 in which many true conservatives participated were not wasted. Americans have been wakng up in recent years both politically and religiously, and are fighting back against the Imperial Obama administration.
God did not ignore those prayers or those efforts.

Mitt Romney would not have been the answer to those prayers.
A true conservative would have been the answer to those prayers, but the Republican establishment made sure, compromising even the rules of the Republican Convention, that a true conservative was not nominated.

If the Republican Party establishment was prepared to sell out our values and to (undemocratically) ram through their favored “presumptive nominee,” we might actually be better off with 4 more years of Barack Obama, rather than with an unknown, opportunistic Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney would have, at best, treaded water for us. Conservative policy was not likely to be implemented any time soon.

But, four more years of Obama Administration offers the potential for Americans to experience firsthand the results of the disastrous Obama policy.

Pain and economic hardship can have a sobering effect on people, forcing them to realize that liberalism is a luxury they can no longer afford. The poor, by definition, cannot be liberal with money and must conserve. Goodby liberalism, hello conservatism! God’s balance beam at work!

This principle holds true not only for economic liberalism, but for moral liberalism and for all forms of liberalism. Society, like individuals, makes mistakes, learns from them, and frequently make corrections, when truth becomes obvious.

Back to the Most Popular Articles

The articles to which my readers have been flocking include those analyzing the Alinsky tactics in use by teacher’s unions in Madison, by progressives in the Democrat party, and by the Obama administration. They include comparisons between Alinsky tactics and the Ten Commandments. They include quoting Alinsky’s dedication of his book to Lucifer, or to Satan. They also include warnings to Republicans on surrendering moral ground in the face of Alinsky tactics. They include pointing out that a conservative candidate, contrary to some opinions, would have made a much stronger candidate in the 2012 Presidential election. They include reminders that America is not a Godless country, that the Constitution is not a Godless constitution, and that it is worth our while to stick to Judeo-Christian morality and to the Constitution of the United States, despite the fear of many that elections can only be won by continual compromise and by erosion of moral ground.

What Insurmountable Problems Do We Face Today?

How, in a nation that appears to be divided 50/50 on moral, cultural and political issues, do you defeat a Santa Claus administration which is handing out lollipops and favors in exchange for votes, while demonizing hard working Americans with Alinsky tactic lies and with smear tactics?

Does the solution lie in joining the Santa Claus band wagon, and compromising moral absolutes such as abortion, in order to win over a percentage of the “moderate votes,” in an attempt to tip the balance in our favor?

The Solution

Or does the solution lie in bold moral leadership inspired by devotion to God, such as that provided by Presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Regan, who took strong moral stances and inspired voters to support good men and to follow their lead?

When we give up speaking of God, we fail to use our most powerful resource.

Modern political correctness insists that we deny the truth, that we pretend the Emperor (e.g. Obama) is wearing clothes, and that we admire his fabulous non-existent clothes.
When, in actual fact, he is quite naked. The Emperor has no clothes.

Church and State – The Intimate Connection

It is presumed by most, particularly in the United States, that our laws are based on morality. And that law is based on what is right and not wrong, and on what is just and not unjust.

It is a given fact that morality is reasoned out and embodied in religious belief that there is a God, and that He has set down some inviolable laws that even governments cannot violate.
History shows that without limits, in the absence of a higher authority, governments, like individuals, tend toward becoming tyrannical.

It is therefore logical, particularly in a nation that is religious (as is the United States), that at least on some level, there must be a connection between Church and State. And that government is accountable to God, the maker of the universe.

Christian Principles Fundamental in the Constitution of the United States

The religious intent of the First Amendment was further clarified by a 1799 court ruling, which indicated that the Founders intended the US to follow Christian principles, without allowing one religious group to control government:

Religion is of general and public concern, and on its support depend, in great measure, the peace and good order of government, the safety and happiness of the people. By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed on the same equal footing. 1799 – Runkel vs. Winemiller

To this day, the vast majority of the population of the United States (80%) are still Christian. These Christians vote, and these Christians contribute towards shaping the law.

Keeping Your Beliefs Under Your Hat

In the present culture, we are told to keep our religion under our hats, and not to discuss it publicly.
This has been hammered into us so effectively, that most conservatives are intimidated into silence regarding their beliefs. The likes of the Freedom From Religion Foundation ardently and publicly attack anyone who dares to demonstrate their belief in God visibly.

Just recently, my husband and I had dinner at a great Madison Middle Eastern Restaurant. Seated at a table not far from us was a group of academics, a professor and graduate student hosting an invited speaker who had obviously just given a lecture at UW Madison on LGBT issues. Their conversation was focused on LGBT issues, was loud and lively, and tended to dominate the small room we were in. It was not an exceptional situation in Madison.

My thoughts drifted to the fact that my husband and I were NOT discussing our very conservative views, were NOT discussing them at high volume, and were NOT dominating the room. I started wondering what would happen to us in Madison, WI, or in most American towns, if we did start doing that. I realized that many of us have been shushed into silence.

Selective Silence Enables Minority Rule

The silence on morality and on religious beliefs demanded by modern political correctness is not an equitable mandate to which all are subject. Liberals and progressives remain free push their values publicly and brazenly, and they clamor violation of rights when anyone tries to prevent them from doing so.

Yet conservatives have no such parallel rights, either to speech or to action. When conservatives follow legally prescribed channels and vote their values into law, progressive judges (not elected, but appointed) are found to cancel the democratic majority’s moral resolution.

Separation of Church and State – Very Important to Define Separation

Separation of Church and State.
Yes, Church and State must be separate in government.
If I had the power to enforce my religious belief system on the United States, I would not do so.
No government can force any one religion, and citizens must be free to choose their beliefs (or non-beliefs).

But that is where the separation ends.
The individual must exercise their religious beliefs, their God-inspired knowledge of what is right and wrong, in the voting booth and in their public stance on issues.
How can any Christian shelve the morality of murder, of theft, or of any moral issue when delegating power to those who govern us?
Those who advocate any such notion are short-sighted; do they have no idea that our independence as a nation and our government are based on certain inalienable rights?
That even the Imperial Obama administration cannot violate our rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness?

Future Directions

The answers are pretty simple, and are available to anyone.

I view all of life, including American politics, from a educated religious perspective, and thus I refuse to separate Church and State.
Any shreds of wisdom that may find their way into my material are not my own.
I Quote from the Liturgy of the Hours, a set of daily prayers based on Holy Scripture and available to all:

If the Lord had not been on our side….Then would the waters have engulfed us,the torrent gone over us;over our head would have sweptthe raging waters.……………………………………...-Psalm 123 (124)

It’s very simple: stick strictly to God’s law, pray, and wait.
So cool to watch as it works!

Obama In Catholic Cathedral Pulpit

An interfaith service was held at Boston’s Catholic Holy Cross Cathedral on April 18, 2013, dedicated to those affected by the terror attack at the Boston Marathon. President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attended, and President Obama spoke at the gathering.

Pros and Cons

The pros and cons of giving President Obama the pulpit in an American Catholic Cathedral can and will be argued, particularly by Catholics.

The use of a Catholic Church for public prayer at a time when Boston turns to God is a very powerful and appropriate symbol of the universality of the Catholic Church, and of its predominance in America and in the world. The Catholic Church is the largest religious denomination in Boston, in Massachusetts, in the United States, and until, recently, in the world.

The key to what would happen at the interfaith prayer service, whether it would facilitate a beautiful ecumenical lifting of souls to God, or whether it would resemble more a cheap political stunt debasing the Catholic Church, would lie in what each of the two men, Cardinal O’Malley and President Obama, said while standing in the pulpit.

As it turns out, neither man went to any heroic or shocking extremes, and it is not clear to this Catholic whether the use of Boston’s Holy Cross Cathedral for this purpose was appropriate.

Other faiths, in including Islam, were also represented at the prayer service. Mercifully, the choice of Islam representative was corrected in the nick of time, before an Imam from a Muslim Brotherhood-linked Mosque ended up in the pulpit of Holy Cross Cathedral.

What Did the Cardinal and the President Say from the Pulpit?

The Cardinal:

For text of Cardinal O’Malley’s homily, scroll down below.

The Obamas listen to religious speakers

In his homily, Cardinal O’Malley did somewhat courageously mentioned the culture of death, abortion, the devaluation of human life, and the need for steering clear of revenge. These subjects reflect Catholic Church teaching, and are relevant and appropriate to the Boston Marathon tragedy. Cardinal O’Malley’s role as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities made him an ideal spokesman on these issues.

Obamas at Interfaith Prayer Service

Other comments made by the Cardinal must have reflected his more personal views. Cardial O’Malley voiced his disappointment over insufficient gun control, and made almost friendly, or at least neutral references to the Communist Party and to “community building,” a phrase that has taken on somewhat progressive political connotations in recent years. The Catholic Church takes no position on gun control or on “community building,” but it does tread cautiously where Communism is concerned:

Paragraph 2425: The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modern times with “communism” or “socialism.” She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of “capitalism,” individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor.207 Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for “there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market.”208 Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended.

The President:

The text of President Obama’s address is also provided below; scroll down.

.The most controversial aspect of President Obama’s speech was his omissions. The President avoided any mention of jihad or terrorism, and limited his reference to the bombers to calling them “perpetrators of such senseless violence — these small, stunted individuals.”

The President’s speech also reflected the his global world view, including a somewhat personal perspective.

President Obama’s assured Boston that those who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing would face justice. He said that Americans always “come together to celebrate life,” and referred to the source of American strength. According to the President, our American strength comes from our faith in each other. President Obama said that Boston is “the perfect state of grace,” and that the political and religious leaders of Boston, as well as the people of Boston, are the source of grace.

The President’s focus on people (instead of God) as the source of faith, of grace and of justice, was disconcerting. Religious Americans usually consider God to be the source of faith, grace and justice. Non-religious Americans generally avoid discussing faith and grace altogether, and struggle to agree on what constitutes justice.
So the President’s use of terms like the “state of grace” in a secular context made his intent somewhat obscure.

The President did reference God several times, as the source of our power, love, and self-discipline, as one Who holds close those who died, Who comforts their families, and Who will continue to watch over the United States.

The President seemed to have no understanding of the irony of his comments regarding “celebrating life,” or “visiting death upon innocents” in Boston. As President, he must know that half of his nation opposes abortion and two thirds of us oppose its federal funding. So to speak of “celebrating life” and “death of innocents” in the aftermath of the Boston tragedy, while failing to show any compassion for the 1 million annual innocent lives lost to abortion, and failing to comment on the horror stories of the Gosnell abortion clinic trial and scandal, was bound to antagonize much of the President’s audience.

Text of Cardinal O’Malley’s homily:

Jesus said “they will strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter”; that is what happened to His disciples after the Crucifixion, as they scattered in fear, doubt and panic.

Cardinal O’Malley speaks at Holy Cross Cathedral Interfaith Service

This week we are all scattered by the pain and horror of the senseless violence perpetrated on Patriots Day. Last Sunday at the 11:30 Mass here at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Fr. O’Leary led a special blessing for the many runners who participated in the Mass. Some people here were among those injured and those who witnessed the terrible events that unfolded at the finish line of the Marathon, but everyone was profoundly affected by the wanton violence and destruction inflicted upon our community by two young men unknown to all of us.

It is very difficult to understand what was going on in the young men’s minds, what demons were operative, what ideologies or politics or the perversion of their religion. It was amazing to witness, however, how much goodness and generosity were evidenced in our community as a result of the tragic events they perpetrated.

It reminds me of a passage in Dorothy Day’s autobiography where she speaks about experiencing a serious earthquake in California when she was a young girl. Suddenly neighbors that never spoke were helping each other, sharing their food and water, caring for children and the elderly. She was amazed and delighted, but a few weeks later people retreated to their former individualism and indifference.

Dorothy Day spent the rest of her life looking to recapture the spirit of community. That led her to the Communist Party and eventually it led her into the Catholic Church and to found the Catholic Worker Movement, dedicating herself to the care of the homeless, the drug addict

This past week we have experienced a surge in civic awareness and sense of community. It has been inspiring to see the generous and at times heroic responses to the Patriots Day violence. Our challenge is to keep this spirit of community alive going forward. As people of faith, we must commit ourselves to the task of community building.

Jesus teaches us in the Gospel that we must care for each other, especially the most vulnerable; the hungry, the sick, the homeless, the foreigner; all have a special claim on our love. We must be a people of reconciliation, not revenge. The crimes of the two young men must not be the justification for prejudice against Muslims and against immigrants.

The Gospel is the antidote to the “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth” mentality. The parable of the Good Samaritan is the story about helping one’s neighbor when that neighbor was from an enemy tribe, a foreign religion, a hostile group. The Samaritan cuts through centuries of antipathy by seeing in the Jewish man who had been beaten and left for dead not a stranger or an enemy, but a fellow human being who has a claim of his humanity and compassion.

We know so little about the two young men who perpetrated these heinous acts of violence. One said he had no friends in this country, the other said his chief interests were money and his career. People need to be part of a community to lead a fully human life. As believers one of our tasks is to build community, to value people more than money or things, to recognize in each person a child of God, made in the image and likeness of our Creator.

The individualism and alienation of our age has spawned a culture of death. Over a million abortions a year is one indication of how human life has been devalued. Violent entertainment, films and video games have coarsened us and made us more insensitive to the pain and suffering of others. The inability of the Congress to enact laws that control access to automatic weapons is emblematic of the pathology of our violent culture.

When Pope John Paul II visited Madrid in 2003, addressing one million young people, he told them; “Respond to the blind violence and inhuman hatred with the fascinating power of love.” We all know that evil has its fascination and attraction but too often we lose sight of the fact that love and goodness also have the power to attract and that virtue is winsome. Passing on the faith means helping people to lead a good life, a moral life, a just life. Thus part of our task as believers is to help our people become virtuous.

Plato thought that virtue was knowledge. As Chain Ginott, the concentration camp survivor, reminds us, doctors, nurses, scientists and soldiers were part of the Holocaust machinery, showing that knowledge is not virtue, and often science and technology have been put at the service of evil. It is only a culture of life and an ethic of love that can rescue us from the senseless violence that inflicts so much suffering on our society.

Like Christ our Good Shepherd, we who aspire to be Jesus’ disciples and to follow His way of life, we too must work to gather the scattered, to draw people into Christ’s community. It is in His Gospel that we find the answers to the questions of life and the challenging ideals that are part of discipleship; mercy, forgiveness, self sacrifice, service, justice and truth.

John Lennon once said, ‘Everything will be OK in the end. If it’s not OK, it’s not the end.’ Our faith goes beyond that optimism. Love is stronger than death. We are going to live forever in the Resurrection Christ won for us on the Cross. The innocent victims who perished this week; Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi, Officer Sean Collier, will live in eternity. Life is not ended, merely changed – that is the message of Easter. As Martin Luther King expressed, ‘Death is a comma, not a period at the end of a sentence.’

Although the culture of death looms large, our Good Shepherd rose from the grave on Easter and His light can expel the darkness and illuminate for us a path that leads to life, to a civilization of solidarity and love. I hope that the events of this past week have taught us how high the stakes are. We must build a civilization of love, or there will be no civilization at all.

Text of President Obama’s Address:

Hello, Boston!

Scripture tells us to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Run with endurance the race that is set before us.

On Monday morning, the sun rose over Boston. The sunlight glistened off the Statehouse dome. In the Common and the Public Garden, spring was in bloom. On this Patriot’s Day, like so many before, fans jumped onto the T to see the Sox at Fenway. In Hopkinton, runners laced up their shoes and set out on a 26.2-mile test of dedication and grit and the human spirit. And across this city, hundreds of thousands of Bostonians lined the streets — to hand the runners cups of water and to cheer them on.

It was a beautiful day to be in Boston — a day that explains why a poet once wrote that this town is not just a capital, not just a place. Boston, he said, “is the perfect state of grace.”

And then, in an instant, the day’s beauty was shattered. A celebration became a tragedy. And so we come together to pray, and mourn, and measure our loss. But we also come together today to reclaim that state of grace — to reaffirm that the spirit of this city is undaunted, and the spirit of this country shall remain undimmed.

To Governor Patrick; Mayor Menino; Cardinal O’Malley and all the faith leaders who are here; Governors Romney, Swift, Weld and Dukakis; members of Congress; and most of all, the people of Boston and the families who’ve lost a piece of your heart. We thank you for your leadership. We thank you for your courage. We thank you for your grace.

I’m here today on behalf of the American people with a simple message: Every one of us has been touched by this attack on your beloved city. Every one of us stands with you.

Because, after all, it’s our beloved city, too. Boston may be your hometown, but we claim it, too. It’s one of America’s iconic cities. It’s one of the world’s great cities. And one of the reasons the world knows Boston so well is that Boston opens its heart to the world.

Over successive generations, you’ve welcomed again and again new arrivals to our shores — immigrants who constantly reinvigorated this city and this commonwealth and our nation. Every fall, you welcome students from all across America and all across the globe, and every spring you graduate them back into the world — a Boston diaspora that excels in every field of human endeavor. Year after year, you welcome the greatest talents in the arts and science, research — you welcome them to your concert halls and your hospitals and your laboratories to exchange ideas and insights that draw this world together.

And every third Monday in April, you welcome people from all around the world to the Hub for friendship and fellowship and healthy competition — a gathering of men and women of every race and every religion, every shape and every size; a multitude represented by all those flags that flew over the finish line.

So whether folks come here to Boston for just a day, or they stay here for years, they leave with a piece of this town tucked firmly into their hearts. So Boston is your hometown, but we claim it a little bit, too

I know this because there’s a piece of Boston in me. You welcomed me as a young law student across the river; welcomed Michelle, too. You welcomed me during a convention when I was still a state senator and very few people could pronounce my name right.

Like you, Michelle and I have walked these streets. Like you, we know these neighborhoods. And like you, in this moment of grief, we join you in saying — “Boston, you’re my home.” For millions of us, what happened on Monday is personal. It’s personal.

Today our prayers are with the Campbell family of Medford. They’re here today. Their daughter, Krystle, was always smiling. Those who knew her said that with her red hair and her freckles and her ever-eager willingness to speak her mind, she was beautiful, sometimes she could be a little noisy, and everybody loved her for it. She would have turned 30 next month. As her mother said through her tears, “This doesn’t make any sense.”

Our prayers are with the Lu family of China, who sent their daughter, Lingzi, to BU so that she could experience all this city has to offer. She was a 23-year-old student, far from home. And in the heartache of her family and friends on both sides of a great ocean, we’re reminded of the humanity that we all share.

Our prayers are with the Richard family of Dorchester — to Denise and their young daughter, Jane, as they fight to recover. And our hearts are broken for 8-year-old Martin — with his big smile and bright eyes. His last hours were as perfect as an 8-year-old boy could hope for — with his family, eating ice cream at a sporting event. And we’re left with two enduring images of this little boy — forever smiling for his beloved Bruins, and forever expressing a wish he made on a blue poster board: “No more hurting people. Peace.”

No more hurting people. Peace.

Our prayers are with the injured -— so many wounded, some gravely. From their beds, some are surely watching us gather here today. And if you are, know this: As you begin this long journey of recovery, your city is with you. Your commonwealth is with you. Your country is with you. We will all be with you as you learn to stand and walk and, yes, run again. Of that I have no doubt. You will run again. You will run again.

Because that’s what the people of Boston are made of. Your resolve is the greatest rebuke to whoever committed this heinous act. If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorize us, to shake us from those values that Deval described, the values that make us who we are, as Americans — well, it should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it. Not here in Boston. Not here in Boston.

You’ve shown us, Boston, that in the face of evil, Americans will lift up what’s good. In the face of cruelty, we will choose compassion. In the face of those who would visit death upon innocents, we will choose to save and to comfort and to heal. We’ll choose friendship. We’ll choose love.

Scripture teaches us, “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” And that’s the spirit you’ve displayed in recent days.

When doctors and nurses, police and firefighters and EMTs and Guardsmen run towards explosions to treat the wounded — that’s discipline.

When exhausted runners, including our troops and veterans — who never expected to see such carnage on the streets back home — become first responders themselves, tending to the injured — that’s real power.

When Bostonians carry victims in their arms, deliver water and blankets, line up to give blood, open their homes to total strangers, give them rides back to reunite with their families — that’s love.

That’s the message we send to those who carried this out and anyone who would do harm to our people. Yes, we will find you. And, yes, you will face justice. We will find you. We will hold you accountable. But more than that; our fidelity to our way of life — to our free and open society — will only grow stronger. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but one of power and love and self-discipline.

Like Bill Iffrig, 78 years old — the runner in the orange tank top who we all saw get knocked down by the blast — we may be momentarily knocked off our feet, but we’ll pick ourselves up. We’ll keep going. We will finish the race. In the words of Dick Hoyt, who’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, in 31 Boston Marathons — “We can’t let something like this stop us.” This doesn’t stop us.

And that’s what you’ve taught us, Boston. That’s what you’ve reminded us — to push on. To persevere. To not grow weary. To not get faint. Even when it hurts. Even when our heart aches. We summon the strength that maybe we didn’t even know we had, and we carry on. We finish the race. We finish the race.

And we do that because of who we are. And we do that because we know that somewhere around the bend a stranger has a cup of water. Around the bend, somebody is there to boost our spirits. On that toughest mile, just when we think that we’ve hit a wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall. We know that.

And that’s what the perpetrators of such senseless violence — these small, stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build, and think somehow that makes them important — that’s what they don’t understand. Our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial differences there may be — that is our power. That’s our strength.

That’s why a bomb can’t beat us. That’s why we don’t hunker down. That’s why we don’t cower in fear. We carry on. We race. We strive. We build, and we work, and we love — and we raise our kids to do the same. And we come together to celebrate life, and to walk our cities, and to cheer for our teams. When the Sox and Celtics and Patriots or Bruins are champions again — to the chagrin of New York and Chicago fans — the crowds will gather and watch a parade go down Boylston Street.

And this time next year, on the third Monday in April, the world will return to this great American city to run harder than ever, and to cheer even louder, for the 118th Boston Marathon. Bet on it.

Tomorrow, the sun will rise over Boston. Tomorrow, the sun will rise over this country that we love. This special place. This state of grace.

Scripture tells us to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” As we do, may God hold close those who’ve been taken from us too soon. May He comfort their families. And may He continue to watch over these United States of America.

Obama at Holy Cross Cathedral

The US Catholic Bishops have made a unanimous declaration that the Obama administration is violating the civil rights of American Catholics, by forcing them to act against their faith in a matter involving the life and death of innocent human beings in the HHS Mandate.

Obama’s position on gay marriage, should it prevail, would also criminalize the refusal of a Catholic parish to hire a “married” homosexual to teach in its elementary school.

Pope Francis wrote that the movement for same-sex marriage was Satanic. (The implications of same-sex marriage are not obvious on the surface, but are explored at Gay Marriage and Homosexuality)

Questions and points:

Why did the Archbishop of Boston and chairman of the bishops’ pro-life committee, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, welcome Obama to speak at his Cathedral, literally giving Obama a pulpit?

Let us hope and pray that the good Cardinal plans to confront Obama on the Cardinal’s turf.

To My Friends Who Are Democrats…

(See former Hillary Clinton aide postscript at end.)
Pitching politics has been counter-intuitive for me for most of my lifetime.

I have never belonged to one political party, and still refuse to join one.
I refuse to be a groupie following one charismatic individual, and I do not relinquish my free will to control by any organization or group.
Admittedly, I have been quite conservative most of my life; although there have been exceptions to that, too, particularly during my college days.

A Realistic View

My view of politics is a realistic one; nothing’s black, nothing’s white. Nobody is 100% right, nobody is 100% wrong. I like to enquire, to think, and to adopt the best of what everyone has to offer. That includes ideas from more than one political party.

The United States seems limited to two major parties. Not a bad system, from the viewpoint of avoiding governance by a minority, smaller than 51%. Since one party is not likely to encompass all the ideas of a particular individual, we have to weigh the pros and cons offered by the two major parties at each election, and choose the party that satisfies our most important considerations at that historical time.

But Aren’t You a Republican?

Anybody reading this blog must have noticed that my writing seems to be very pro-Republican in 2012. But those who read carefully will notice that I rarely use the word Republican. I rarely use the name Romney. Instead, I use the word conservative.

What About Most Americans?

Few Americans are extremists.
Few people are radically conservative or radically liberal.
Most of us are in the middle.
Even those who are quite conservative, like me, believe in the right of others to reject my beliefs. Religious Christians respect the gift of Free Will given to us by God, and we respect the freedom guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the United States.
Few liberals are callous, insensitive to the bankrupting of America, or to the extermination of 54 million unborn American citizens by abortion, a problem particularly affecting black communities.
Few conservatives are callous, insensitive to the plight of the poor, or to the horrors of war.

Most Americans appreciate that good people can view things from different perspectives, and those who disagree with us probably have noble motivations. Even if we believe that our opponents have their facts mistaken, we can admire them for their dedication to justice and to fairness, which we share.

Most Americans are independent in spirit, and have voted for candidates from both political parties over the years.
For many years, the differences between Democrats and Republicans were not overwhelmingly large; both supported Judeo-Christian principles, and both supported the rule of law as outlined in the Constitution of the United States. Did you know that as recently as 1999, Harry Reid opposed abortion? So did Joe Biden, Al Gore, Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy.

But 2012 is different.

What’s Different in 2012?

Barack Obama is the difference in 2012.
Barack Obama, unlike previous Presidents, and unlike most Americans and most liberals, has shown himself to be a rigid, inflexible idealist.

The unification, transparency, and justice that he promised, and on the basis of which he was elected, have been replaced by a dictatorial, extreme and unaccountable set of policies, executed by czars, which have pushed America into gridlock.His policies and mandates do not follow the rule of law.

President Obama’s ideals don’t represent those of most liberals or most Americans, yet he tries to mandate compliance with his ideals. He issues mandates without approval of the House, Senate, or Supreme Court. When the legislature refuses to pass what President Obama wants, he bypasses them with a mandate. Then he promises Vladimir Putin that he will have “more flexibility” after this election.

How Has Barack Obama Reneged On His Promises and Violated the Rights of Americans?

President Obama has reneged on a number of the duties to which he was sworn at his inauguration, and on a number of campaign promises he made in 2008.

Such a radical promotion of abortion and contraception no only renders our society inhuman from the point of view of morality, but also has economic consequences, since shrinking and aging populations will face rapidly mounting debts.

Economy

Barack Obama has not passed a single budget in four years, and submits budgets to the legislature so unrealistic, that they get ZERO Democrat votes in the Senate, which is held by Democrats.
Sometimes it appears that the President doesn’t understand the math.
Recently, he admitted on national television that he struggles with 7th grade math. This cannot be good.

Barack Obama has raised the national debt by 50% in just 4 years with his spending, creating a per capita national debt of over $50,00 for each of us, when it was just $33,000 four years ago. Since only half of us pay any federal income tax, that means a per capita debt of about $100,000 for each person who pays federal tax, and a per household debt of over $250,000 in the United States today. Since the average household income in the United States is $50,000, that’s already quite a debt, a debt of five years income for each of us. If Barack Obama is reelected, the national debt is projected to go up an additional 47% over 10 years, bringing the household share of the national debt to over $375,00. That will be a debt of seven and a half years income for each of us ten years from now. If you think you have paid off your mortgage by then, you can start a new mortgage on a $375,000 house. That’s for the average family earning $50,000 per year. If your income is higher, your extra debt will be higher.

Scrooge McDuck

Quite some plan Barack Obama has for us, considering that our per capita national debt is already worse than Greece’s today, at the outset, right now.

The jobs these students would have been getting in the absence of Obama’s naive policies are destroyed by ObamaCare costs for employers and Obama’s intention to double taxation on small business owners, who will not hire and expand.

Foreign Policy

In the light of recent events in Benghazi, the most positive possible interpretation of Barack Obama’s negligent actions in failing to protect our Embassy staff would be that he did not provide security for the Benghazi because he did not expect anyone in Libya to touch Americans, perhaps because we are such nice people. Can anyone be that naive?

Barack Obama acted as though we are in Libya handing out candies to trick-or-treaters, and he did not expect them to come out wielding knives, or heavy weapons such as the ones which were used against the Benghazi embassy – automatic weapons, mortars and rocket propelled grenades. When caught criminally unprepared, coverup followed.

An even less flattering explanation of Barack Obama’s actions would include Obama sacrificing our global standing intentionally. Obama has been accused of an anti-colonialist mentality, which considers that the US needs to be downsized globally in it’s lifestyle, it’s power and it’s wealth. The movie 2016:Obama’s America documents these claims by Dinesh D’Souza, a University President who bases most of his claims on Obama’s autobiography, Dreams of My Father, as well as research into Obama’s life. 2016: Obama’s America is showing in theaters now, has grossed more than $33.45 million in the United States. The movie is now the second biggest political documentary in film history. Yet this record-setting film is virtually being ignored by the mainstream media, which protects Obama from criticism routinely and shamelessly.

Another less flattering explanation of Barack Obama’s actions would include accusing him of intentionally reducing US Power because of the secret Marxist ideology taught to him by Marshall Davis, a Communist Party USA propagandist who is mentioned in Obama’s autobiography . This theory is based on the documented fact that Obama’s mother posed for pornographic photos taken by Marshall Davis, who, it is suggested, could also be Barack Obama’s father. These suggestions are explored by the movie Dreams from my REAL Father, which can be watched instantly on Netflix. If you have not seen this film, I suggest you watch it this weekend, before you vote.

Finally, a third movie, The Hope and the Change, is available to watch for free on Hulu at http://www.hulu.com/watch/409925. The Hope and the Change is a documentary about independent and Reagan Democrat voters who cast their ballots for Obama in 2008 and will not do so in 2012. These voters feel betrayed by Obama’s false promises of hope and lofty rhetoric.

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Immigration

Barack Obama has refused to enforce immigration laws at the US border with Mexico, and has sued Arizona when Arizona tried to enforce laws themselves. In this, and other areas, Obama has failed to defend the Constitution of the United States and to enforce its laws.
He has demonstrated a naivete in economics and in foreign policy that has placed our nation in tremendous danger.

The Point

So the point is: Barack Obama is not your normal Democrat.
Barack Obama does not respect the voice of the American People, 2/3 of whom oppose ObamaCare, 2/3 of whom oppose federal funding of abortion, and 2/3 of whom oppose Obama’s recent violations of the religious liberty of Catholics.
Barack Obama does not respect the division of governmental power between Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches.
Barack Obama does not respect his own promises of 2008.
Barack Obama is not who he told us he was.
Barack Obama does not plan to work with all Americans, he just plans to continue pushing his extreme agenda, with which even Democrats disagree.

“For most of my life, I’ve been an active Democrat. I am proud to have worked for President Bill Clinton and then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and, during that time, I saw firsthand what can be accomplished by strong, bipartisan leadership. I know what it means to work across the aisle on issues that are important to the American people. And that’s why I am supporting Mitt Romney. Governor Romney has a plan to restore the prosperity this country deserves and expects. He will work with people of good will no matter what their party, and he will pursue the policies that are in the best interest of our country, no matter who proposes them. That’s what President Obama promised to do four years ago. But like so many of his promises, bipartisan cooperation is just another one he has broken. We can’t have four more years of failed policies and two parties that can’t work together. We need the change Mitt Romney is offering.”

My Catholic pastor in today’s Cathedral Parish Church bulletin:I certainly intend to exercise my right to vote on Tuesday – in fact, I would crawl the four blocks to my polling place over broken glass in order to vote this year. And I trust that you will too – vote, that is.Personally, I am hopeful about the current elections. I am optimistic that we will have a good number of newly elected leaders who will be more sensitive to our moral concerns and our freedom of religion. And, God willing, sufficiently prudent decisions will be made so that we can avert the national collapse that appears (at least to me) to loom on the horizon… (see above link to finish reading)

Come Stand Up For Religious Freedom

The next Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally takes place on Saturday, October 20 – just 17 days before the general election. Join us at Rally sites nationwide as we fight to restore religious freedom in the United States!

Why Should I Go?

It’s Simple:

It’s Not Just For Catholics- Atheists Should Be Worried, Too

Or Why Even Atheists Should Stand Against Presidential Mandates

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If Presidents of the future will be permitted to issue mandates like the HHS Mandate, without popular vote, without Senate or House vote, and without Supreme Court evaluation, what mandate will the NEXT President of the United States, who may not belong to your favorite political affiliation, decree?

I may not like President Obama’s mandates.
But others, including atheists, would not like President Romney’s mandates

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Where’s the Rally in Madison?

The Madison, WI rally is on the State Street steps of the State Capitol building in downtown Madison, WI.
Noon on Saturday, October 20, 2012.
During the Farmer’s Market!
Come and join us!

For those interested in the details of America’s report-card downgrades, more data is shown below.
But first, let’s discuss the religious freedom downgrade itself, together with it’s implications.

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Restrictions on Religion; So What?

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Restriction or elimination of religion may seem harmless to some.

Some might even fall for the argument that forbidding all public expression of religion might be a kind and tolerant policy to employ. We would hate to offend the sensibilities of those who don’t believe in God, wouldn’t we?

But such arguments, promoted primarily by a miniscule minority of “progressives” like the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), are shortsighted, misleading and fallacious. Such arguments promote the elimination of morality and of ethics from government altogether, the banning of conscience from the voting booth, and the restriction of fairness and justice to private life.
Such arguments fail to acknowledge that Thou Shalt Not Kill, Steal, Lie… are essential elements of law and order, that chaos would reign if the Ten Commandments were eliminated from our codes of law, and that banning the public mention of religion actually promotes atheism, a religious belief system held by a very small minority of Americans.

Government cannot promote and enforce atheism any more validly than it can promote or enforce any other belief system. Most atheists understand this, and offer no opposition to the public expression of religion by the majority of Americans, who are religious. However, fringe radicals who want to eradicate all mention of religion from American life argue semantics; they claim that technically speaking atheism is not a religion, and that it is valid for government to enforce absence of religion rather than freedom of religion. They are desperate to prove that their minority belief is superior to Judeo-Christian majority belief.

The Power of Religion

Religions have historically been the primary source for moral codes governing and limiting the conduct of human affairs.

The existence of an inviolable moral code places limits on the actions in which all, including the powerful, can engage.
There is a reason why countless despots in history have worked hard to eliminate the influence of religion in their governments; religion challenges not only the humble, but also the powerful, to comply with codes of ethics such as the Ten Commandments.

Roman Emperors were considered to be Gods. and were unfettered by a higher power. This system which assigned ultimate authority to a man instead of to an established system of ethics, spawned monsters like Caligula and Nero, who used, shocked, and terrorized their subjects through unlimited abuses of power.

Even relatively benign rulers like Henry VIII illustrate the value of the restrictions that religious ethics place on government. Henry VIII is an example of a King who placed himself over the ethics dictated by the Ten Commandments, who denounced the authority of the Church, and declared himself head of the Church, because he wished to discard an infertile wife. As a result, Henry VIII bequeathed one of the first divisions in Christendom, as well as centuries of divorce and of broken homes to his nation and to the world.

The Marxist Soviet Union worked hard to eliminate religion from any public role in life, so that dictators would be free of moral constraints, to do as they wished unchallenged. Unfettered by Christian principles, the atrocities perpetrated by the Soviet Union include the genocides and repressions executed by Stalin, Lenin, and subsequent Soviet leaders. My grandparents and uncle are included in those deported to Siberia by this regime without any justification.

President Obama, also seemingly benign, is the first U.S. President to celebrate “unbelievers” publicly. He is also the first U.S. President to violate religious freedom in the United States with unilateral mandates, which he issues without a popular vote, without the scrutiny of Congress or the Senate, nor of the Supreme Court. President Obama has managed to promote himself not only above the laws of Christianity on which this nation is based, but also above democracy, which, incidentally, is also based on religion; on inalienable rights endowed on us by our Creator.
President Obama unilaterally promotes abortion, homosexual marriage, and taxation without representation, without input from the nation. Even the minority which approves President Obama’s mandates is shortsighted, not realizing that the power Obama is trying to establish through autocratic mandates will be used against them by a next President who might not be of their choosing.

Religion provides not only a fixed inviolable code of ethics, which apply equally to government and to the governed, but religion also provides a mechanism for giving the man in the street power. Yes, contrary to what despots like Lenin or Marx would have us think (“Religion is the opiate of the people”), religion is actually the only mechanism that provides power to the people, power against which no government can win. History has shown us many men who, backed by God, stood against incredible odds and won.

Citizens, with the help of God (about whom they learn through religion), can judge the actions of government, can organize, can resist, and can even find the courage to die for the principles in which they believe. Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty, or give me death” was not an empty phrase, but was a very sincere and powerful statement, epitomizing the spirit of the American people.Over two hundred years have passed, but the spirit of the American people, as well as their love for God, remain.

Despots fear religion, because religion is the only tool that gives unarmed masses the moral authority, the courage and the power to resist autocratic regimes.

Incidentally, the “secret weapon” which allowed Mitt Romney to trample Barack Obama during last week’s Presidential debate, is the moral authority and the courage in which Mitt Romney represented the people of America.

Obama and Neutralizing Religion

Whether intentional or not, President Obama is firmly set on a course that would annihilate the power of religion in the United States.

Obama’s HHS Mandate, if not reversed, will impose penalties on all Catholic institutions, penalties which will bankrupt all Catholic institutions within two years.
Catholics, 25% of America, will no longer be able to operate hospitals, schools, or businesses of any kind, because they cannot ethically provide abortifacients to their employees. Catholics will also be unable to be nurses, pharmacists or doctors, as abortion-related mandates eliminate all Christians from employment in medical professions.
Obama’s autocratic insertion of abortion into ObamaCare via the HHS Mandate, in violation of his own Executive order and promise to Bart Stupak and his 11 Democrats, will force the federal funding of abortion on America, something that 2/3 of America opposes. In Bart Stupak’s own words, Barak Obama is the “most pro-abortion President ever,” against the wishes of two thirds of America.
Obama’s initial attacks seem focused primarily on Catholics; Obama views Catholic teaching on contraception an Achilles heel, an area where his attack on the authority of conscience and of religion may have some success. The ethical problems posed by contraception are something that most Americans have not studied, and on which most Americans are not likely to support the Catholic Church.

If the strike at this Achilles heel were to be successful, however, the precedent will have been established which allows further violation of religious conscience rights by government mandate, permitting Obama (and all subsequent Presidents) to rise above the consciences of all Americans, above all religious teachings, and above the will of the people.

Most religious leaders know this, and have joined in supporting the Catholic Chruch against the HHS or Trojan Horse Mandate.

If You Don’t Want Further Downgrades

Bottom Line:

The Religious Freedom downgrade is serious.
The Religious Freedom downgrade is likely to get much worse if President Obama is reelected and if ObamaCare and the HHS Mandate are not overturned.

Flunking religion is actually related to flunking all the other subjects: credit rating, economy, reproductive health, health care quality, education, unemployment, quality of family life, crime rate and drug arrests. All of these are affected by our commitment to ethics and to justice.

.Whether President Obama’s trampling of the religious freedom of Americans is unintentional or purposeful, it must be reversed if this nation is to prosper.
If you want to repair the American Report Card, vote for Romney/Ryan, who will reorient this nation toward those Judeo-Christian values which are still codified in our laws and on which most of us still agree: life, liberty, property, responsibility, fairness, truth, and the rule of democracy.

Some Claim That President Obama Wants Us to Flunk

There are documented and credible claims, based on President Obama’s autobiography and on an analysis of his history that Barak Obama subscribes to an anti-colonialist philosophy.

Anti-colonialism vilifies the United States as a nation which exploits other nations unfairly, and which must be taken down a peg to equalize global opportunity for other nations. Anti-colonialism does not acknowledge that hard work and ethical values got the US to where we are today, and that the same opportunity is available to other nations. The philosophy assumes that there is a fixed amount of prosperity in the world, and that in order for other nations to prosper, the United States must be demoted.

The philosophy is flawed, just as the claim that my building of a

ENVY

great log cabin or learning of a new language prevents my neighbor from building a great log cabin or learning a new language, is flawed.

If we have an anti-colonialist President at the helm as the movie 2016 claims, our report card will continue to degenerate even more rapidly; not surprisingly, if that is the goal of the Commander in Chief. A suicide-bomber who intentionally crashes an entire nation out of envy and resentment. Particulary ironic, for a man who has benefited so much personally from the opportunities in America and who quite obviously enjoys the luxuries that can be acquired here.

More Details – Where Exactly are We Slipping?

Let’s take a look at the major areas in which our national report card has been slipping. We start with more detail on the two most recent downgrades, this year, following the impact of President Obama’s first term:

the first downgrade ever in credit rating
and

the first downgrade ever in religious freedom.

Grading Our Credit Status- First Downgrade in History

The US credit rating got downgraded for the first time in history on August 5, 2011, immediately after Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling in the Budget Control Act on August 2, 2011.
This downgrade was the result of President Obama’s “stimulus” spending, in which he singlehandedly increased the total previous national debt by 51%, in less than 4 years, more than doubling the spending rate of any President, including his predecessor Bush.

A continuation of President Obama’s proposed budget would bring the national debt to $25 trillion in ten years.

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This is why conservatives like Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan are desperate to reverse US spending, and to stop the accumulation of debt.

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Grading on Religion

Next, we examine the Pew Research evaluation of restriction of religious freedom exercised by governments.

Pew Research is a nonpartisan fact tank that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. The center conducts public opinion polling, demographic studies, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. It does not take positions on policy issues.

Religious Freedom Grades- First Downgrade in History

Now, under President Obama, for the first time in history, the U.S. just got a downgrade in religious freedom this week.
We are no longer among the freest nations on earth when it comes to religion.
Moreover, this downgrade in religious freedom is only the beginning of potential future downgrades, since it only reflects President Obama’s policies through mid 2010, prior to his issuance of the HHS Mandate in 2011. The HHS Mandate violates religious freedom further, is opposed by 2/3 of America, and is likely to damage US religious freedom scores even more.

The United States, the nation founded to establish religious freedom for those fleeing religious persecution in Europe, has just been downgraded on religious freedom, and now lags behind many developing nations, and behind previous Soviet satellites such as Lithuania, in governmental tolerance of religion.

How Big Is the Downgrade?

Pew Research grades the nations of the world from 0 to 10 with Government Restriction Index (GRI) Scores:

The change is considered significant, represents almost a doubling in the level of religious restriction in our country, and shifts the United States from the Low Religious Restriction into the Moderate Religious Restriction category.

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How Do We Compare With Other Nations on Religious Freedom?

Following the first half of Barack Obama’s term of office, we abruptly joined 16 countries whose scores increased by more than one point in one year, indicating a measurable increase in Governmental hostility to religion. We can probably expect a further downgrade when President Obama’s HHS Mandate of 2011 is included in future scores, and when the obligatory abortion provisions of ObamaCare kick in.
Now Australia, Canada, Japan, South Africa, and 91 additional countries have better religious freedom scores than we do, and we have joined the Moderate Religious Restriction category with Cambodia, Lebanon, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, among others.

Will we be classified with Pakistan, Libya and Iraq in the Very High Religious Restriction category next year, when the HHS Mandate has imposed crippling tax penalties on all Catholic and Evangelical employers?

Reproductive Health:

Before the Obama administrations recent attempts to redefine reproductive health, reproductive health used to be measured by infant mortality. The lower infant mortality, the better a nation’s “reproductive health” rating.
Now, it seems that the Obama administration, after issuing Executive Orders promising to exclude abortion from ObamaCare, has reversed itself. Now Obama insists that abortion, sterilization and contraception free of charge be rights guaranteed to all women, and includes these services in ObamaCare, via the HHS Mandate.

As abortion, contraception and screening and treatment for STDs are added to the expanding list of “reproductive rights” now guaranteed for the first time to be free of cost by the Obama administration, the birth and health of newborn infants continues to be de-prioritized, and the decline of our infant mortality in the United States has not kept pace with declines in other countries.

Stability of Family Life; Divorce Rate:

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Crime Rates, Drug Arrests

Crime rates escalating in the United States

Drug arrests escalating in the United States

What Do You Do When You’re on the Verge of Flunking?

How Do You Pull Up Your Grades in the Last Quarter?

You buckle down, and figure out that school is not a place for meeting friends, hanging out, eating candy and mocking teachers.
You decide where you want to go, how much time you have, who can help you, and what the essentials are.
Do your work.
Stop making excuses.
Be responsible.
Do extra work.
Develop a better work ethic.
Pray.
Resolve to develop some new habits.
Focus in class.
Attend class.
Don’t fool around.
Don’t slack.
Follow the rules.
Respect your teacher and respect the students who are successful; ask them for help.
Stop complaining, and start working.

The Same Advice Works for a Nation:

Find a guy who is responsible and successful, and listen to what he says.
It worked for Wisconsin with Scott Walker.
It can work for the US with Romney/Ryan.

Vote Romney/Ryan on November 6th,
like your life depended on it. ( It does.)

Heckling the Rosary

or

Renaming the Wisconsin State Journal

Don’t Diss My Church

One of the prime goals of this cultural values blog is to defend my religion, Catholicism, against the regrettably frequent and unjust attacks we suffer, particularly in Madison, WI.
One of this blog’s first blog categories was “Don’t Diss My Church.”
And in Madison, the Wisconsin State Journal has provided more than it’s fair share of imbalanced reporting on Catholics, frequently fueling my blog.

Why Pray the Rosary at Madison’s Capitol Square?

Catholics praying the rosary at Capitol Rosary Rally

Now that the Obama administration has embarked on restricting the religious freedom of Catholics, Madison Catholics have begun praying the rosary on Thursday evenings on the Madison Capitol steps, to beg God’s help in the restoration of religious freedom to our nation.

Madison’s Rosary Rally gatherings attract 150-300 quiet, polite people each week. The crowd includes families with small children, young singles, and many grandparents as well. The Catholics gather quietly after business hours, do not disrupt Capitol business, leave no litter behind, do no shouting, carry no vuvuzelas, whistles or drums, and don’t even carry signs. They come, they pray for our nation, and they leave quietly, leaving no damage in their wake.

Who Heckles Children Praying the Rosary?

About 3 to 10 ne’er-do-wells have started showing up at these rosary events, attempting to disrupt them. Their tactics include shouting four letter words from across the street, mocking the rosary, carrying rude signs mentioning private body parts, and all the usual aggressive radical left tactics Wisconsin has witnessed at recent teacher union protests, and at Madison Pro-Life rallies (which radicals have routinely tried to disrupt in recent years, and where they have even been known to get up in pulpits at Library Mall and perform strip-tease dances in front of children with literally only God knows what motivation).
Teacher union protest tactics:

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Is the Wisconsin State Journal Heckling the Rosary?

So, Doug Erickson, the “religion” reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ), instead of covering the story from the perspective of the hundreds of Catholics participating in the Capitol Rosary Rally who represent one quarter of America, covered the story instead from the perspective of the handful of rude hecklers.

A More Accurate Headline:

WSJ Rosary Rally Article- Thinly Disguised Radical Dem Propaganda

Thinly Disguised Radical Dem Propaganda Headline

The Wisconsin State Journal’s misleading headline was amplified by a factor of 118,000 through its State-wide circulation, and the whole of Wisconsin was misinformed. Not to mention online readers, or readers of spin-off articles such as those at the LaCrosse Tribune, Yahoo News or the Orlando Sentinel.

Here’s a You Tube showing the Capitol lunch protesters with whom Craig Spaulding participated frequently and which forced Capitol Tour Guides to wear ear plugs; the group whose perspective the Wisconsin State Journal favors over the perspective of Catholics praying the Rosary at the Capitol:

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Second Rosary Critic

Second Rosary Critic

Another individual quoted by the WSJ article is one of the co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), Annie Laurie Gaylor, who personally protested at the Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally last June 8th, and who made no objections while her husband and co-President of FFRF Dan Barker repeatedly heckled praying children and scandalized them by shouting sexually suggestive remarks addressed to the children.

Dan Barker (FFRF) at Madison’s Freedom From Religion Rally; and what was Dan Barker doing? Shouting rude things at children.

Annie Laurie Gaylor and FFRF are in a minority not only because they are atheists, but particularly because they are a miniscule minority among atheists themselves. They constitute only 0.1 of 1% of atheists, or one out of a thousand atheists. That’s right, 999 out of 1,000 atheists, unlike Gaylor and FFRF, are tolerant of 80% Christian America, of 25% Catholic America, and have no problem with our legally established American right to public prayer which President Obama periodically exercises. Gaylor and her FFRF, whom the Wisconsin State Journal chose to quote in this article, constitute the angry radical fringe, which represents only one out of 33 thousand people, or 0.003 of 1% of the population of America.

Third Rosary Heckler

Another Rosary heckler (not mentioned by the Wisconsin State Journal article) made herself known to me when her braggadocio arrived in my inbox, through an online discussion in which I had participated. She belatedly joined a discussion which I had previously viewed as a reasonable and constructive conversation with a Madison LGBT activist, and which started when I objected to the activist’s treatment of the first Capitol Rosary Rally and of Bishop Morlino on his blog.

Aside:Since that time, the LGBT activist has begun censoring comments published on his blog, selecting supportive radical comments for publication, and declining to publish further discussion with me. I guess there are limits to the “Bluebird’s” willingness to discuss truth, after all, particularly when he and his friends start losing the argument. Turns out, he’s also a regular at the Lunchtime Solidarity Singers at the Capitol, who drive tour guides to wear ear protection.

Back to the third Rosary heckler: her name is Genie Ogden. Genie bragged in the online discussion that she heckles the Rosary Rally weekly, boos, and sings “Solidarity Forever” at Catholics who are singing hymns. Genie, like Craig Spaulding, was also a regular member of the Capitol lunchtime “Sing-a-Longs,” the fringe minority who continues to make noise at the Madison Capitol at lunchtime, despite Governor Walker’s re-election by an even larger majority in Wisconsin than he enjoyed in his first election.

Perhaps Genie is looking for new outlets for her anger, now that the recall is over. The You Tube of “Solidarity” protesters (to which Craig and Genie belonged, the noise of which drove people to wear ear protection) was presented above.

Do these rosary hecklers/solidarity singers really believe that such actions would be persuasive and would bolster their cause?

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Genie, like Doug Spaulding and FFRF, tried to claim that the Rosary Rallies are political, and that they constitute a violation of separation of Church and State. What she does not seem to realize is that neither she, nor other liberals, can divine the thoughts of others, and that the mention of Governor Walker and of Paul Ryan once in the course of thirteen Rosary Rallies, in the context of being answers to prayers, reflects a pro-life, not a Republican position. Democrat Stupak and his 11 Democrat supporters were an equal blessing and an equal answer to prayer when they stood up for the exclusion of abortion from ObamaCare.The pro-life beliefs of Catholics are not political; they are ethical.

.Rosary Hecklers in General

The Rosary Hecklers and critics above exhibit a bigoted and tyrannical attitude, denying to others the rights that the hecklers enjoy themselves.

Madison Teacher’s Union Protesters

Solidarity union activists like Craig and Genie, and LGBT activists like the Bluebird, reserve the right to use Madison’s Capitol Square for themselves to promote their own (minority) views and social agendas, but they seem to miss the hypocrisy in denying the use of the Capitol Square to praying Christians, who represent many more people than they do- a fact ignored by WSJ reporters.

The feeble attempts made by Craig, Annie and Genie to label Rosary Rallies events as political

Progressives Misjudging Catholics?

also reflects a judgmental attitude; they claim to know the motivation of others. After misjudging their target’s motivation, many “progressives” continue by attacking and violating the rights of those with whom they disagree. The Constitution does not guarantee a Right to Hateful Harassment. Moreover, the effectiveness of such tactics in promoting one’s cause are highly dubious.

I am proud to say that I have never gone to any Madison Capitol Square event to boo, heckle, curse, scream, disrupt or to counter-protest. I don’t engage in hateful behavior towards those with whom I disagree. Prayer is a much more civilized (and more productive) response. My sentiments are representative of those of Rosary Rally attendees.

Ignoring Two Thirds of America

Doug Erickson missed the boat completely by covering the Rosary Rally story from the perspective of a few radical protesters, and by omitting the concerns of two thirds of America.

The Rosary Rallies actually represent the majority of Wisconsin and of America.
The Catholics at the Rally represent all religions in America, which were recently galvanized and united by the religious freedom violations of the HHS Mandate. Numerous religions joined Catholics in opposing these violations of the First Amendment, an amendment which all religions value. Orthodox Christian Bishops, Protestant Theological Seminary chancellors, Presbyterian Bishops, Southern Baptists, Lutherans Evangelical Lutherans and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America have rallied to support the Catholic Church in upholding the Catholic position on the HHS mandate. This is what Doug Erickson has failed to cover in his reporting.

The Rosary Rallies are large, peaceful, sustained, and they represent the reasonable Judeo-Christian views and the civilized demeanor of at least two thirds of America.

Numerous religions, including Baptists, Evangelicals and Jews, support the Catholic position in Stand Up for Religious Freedom, the program which gave birth to this Rosary Rally.

In ignoring the perspective of Catholics at the Rosary Rally in favor of the perspective of a couple fringe radicals, Doug Erickson has ignored 2/3 of America. He has ignored the majority of America’s opposition to federally funded abortion policy, and he has ignored the social consequences of such abortion policy, which has already resulted in shocking coerced abortion rates of 64% . Abortion is a much bigger deal than most people think .

“THIS AREA HAS BEEN SET ASIDE FOR NON-PROFIT GROUPS TO EXERCISE THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL 1ST AMENDMENT FREE SPEECH RIGHTS.”

Evangelical Christian pastors have just organized a bold and courageous protest against the muzzling of moral leaders in America, and in support of religious freedom. On October 7, 2012, “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” will be celebrated. More than 1,000 pastors will preach sermons from the pulpit talking about the candidates running for office and then making a specific recommendation. The sermons will be recorded and sent to the IRS. The pastors expect the IRS to try to enforce a 1954 IRS tax code amendment forbidding tax-exempt organizations from participating in discussion of candidates for public office. When the IRS tries to revoke tax-exempt status and to impose an excise tax on them, the pastors will welcome the court battle. They claim that the 1954 IRS tax code amendment is blatantly unconstitutional, and they welcome an official evaluation of the amendment in court.
This effort is sponsored by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal ministry formed 18 years ago for the defense of religious freedom through strategy, training, funding and litigation.

Not the First Time WSJ Has Slanted the News

Slanted reporting in the Wisconsin State Journal is not new, nor surprising. Their coverage of the 2011 Teacher’s Union Protests was equally misleading and predisposed toward the “progressive” viewpoint. Lawlessness and misconduct was not reported, both on the part of demonstrators who trashed the Capitol, and on the part of Democrat officials who conspired to block the legal process. WSJ coverage was so slanted and misleading, that this blogger took to reporting what’s really happening in Wisconsin on my blog.

The WSJ also gives the tiny Freedom From Religion Foundation quite a bit of favorable press. Again, a fringe radical group (0.003 of 1% of Americans) gets favored coverage over mainstream Wisconsin.

Twisting and Misrepresenting Catholicism

Coverage of Catholicism in the WSJ has frequently been unprofessionally imbalanced.

Just this week, Doug Erickson did a “moral analysis” of the Catholic vote.
He gave equal weight and space to dissident national co-chairman of Catholics for Obama, as he did to Bishop Morlino of Madison, who is a legitimate and accurate representative of the Catholic Church.

So in Doug Erickson’s world, barakobama.com, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and a couple thousand petition signatories carry the same moral authority as a Catholic Bishop and 78 million real American Catholics. Doug is equating the fringe 0.06 of 1% of Catholics whose theology is steered by Obama, with legitimate Catholic officials and faithful Catholics. (Bishop Morlino’s education includes a doctorate in Moral Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome, with specialization in fundamental moral theology and bioethics.)

Doug Erickson: Reporting on the 0.06 of 1% of Madison Diocese Catholics (Holy Wisdom) – and relegating the 99.94% (real) Catholics to the last paragraph, entitled “detractors.”

Another Doug Erickson report focused on pair of previously Catholic nuns at Holy Wisdom Monastery, who appear to be recruiting Catholics to join their feminist Sunday services in place of attending the Mass. These nuns retain the name Benedictines, despite having rescinded their Benedictine vows and having separated themselves from the Catholic Church. Doug Erickson reported on this fringe minority group of two very favorably, but relegated input from real Catholics, including from the Diocese of Madison, to a last paragraph entitled “detractors,” where he quoted Catholics minimally, and out of context. A minority of two dissidents was portrayed in a favored light, while real Catholics were again downplayed.

The misrepresentation of Catholics in the Wisconsin State Journal could fill numerous blog posts (and has in the past), but the above three examples will suffice here.

For a Truthful Report on the Capitol Rosary Rally: see You Tube

The Capitol Rosary Rally, which the Wisconsin State Journal did not bother to portray accurately, and which reflects the Christian views and the civilized demeanor of the majority of Christian America can be seen here:

Come join Catholics in the 14th Capitol Rosary Rally tonight, Thursday, Sept 20, 2012, at the State Street steps of the Madison Capitol at 7 PM. Come watch what real Americans do (they act civilized and pray), stand in solidarity with Christians for religious freedom in America. All are welcome to watch, to listen, or to pray.

Discussing the Actual Issue

Something else Doug Erickson failed to do in his Capitol Rosary article was to discuss the question that his progressive friends raised; is it legal for Catholics to pray the rosary at Madison’s Capitol Square?

So public prayer is legal, and public gatherings at the Wisconsin State Capitol are legal.

Public gatherings at Madison’s Capitol have included Farmer’s Markets, restaurant showcase events (Taste of Madison), and Wisconsin Capitol Pride, an event promoting LGBTQA acceptance and rights.
Why would Catholic gatherings be forbidden? Why would promoting prayer for religious freedom be forbidden?

Discussing the Double Standard

WSJ failed to address this double standard of progressive Rosary critics in the article.
The progressive Rosary Hecklers quoted by WSJ demand freedom of belief and freedom of speech for themselves, but not for others. They want the right to scream four-letter words at others across Capitol Square in the presence of children, but to forbid the words “Our Father, who art in heaven.”

Further Important Issues Omitted by the WSJ report:

Validity of Christian claims regarding the violation of religious freedom by the HHS mandate

Evaluation of the position of America’s moral leaders on the religious freedom issue

Reporting the obvious differences in behavior, lawfulness and respect for the rights of others between the rosary participants and the heckling critics.

Definition of “separation of Church and State.”

Discussion of whether a once-in-14-prayer-rallies mention of two pro-life politicians constitutes a “violation of separation of Church and State.”

Discussion of the very pertinent 1954 IRS code amendment, which has been used by the IRS to silence Christian pastors, but has not been subject to an examination of constitutionality by the courts.

The effect that restrictions on religious freedom would have on the rights of progressives when in the future conservative Presidents are elected, and the effect on this country’s historical role as the safe haven for the world’s émigrés.

Suggestion: if Doug Erickson is to be the WSJ “religion” reporter, he must examine the serious issues affecting religion, rather than using his status at the WSJ to spread progressive propaganda. He should provide some professional and journalisticly ethical analysis of real religious issues.

Renaming the Wisconsin State Journal

The Wisconsin State Journal should be renamed:

the Wisconsin State Journal Progressive

Invitation: Come and Join Us!

Come tonight, and every Thursday night at 7PM through November 1st.

Join Catholics today in the 14th Capitol Rosary Rally – Thursday, Sept 20, 2012, on the State Street steps of the Madison Capitol at 7 PM.
Come watch what most Americans do (they act civilized and they pray).
Stand in solidarity with Christians for religious freedom in America.All are welcome to watch, to listen, or to pray.

All of us need, and will benefit from, freedom of religion (of belief), which is guaranteed to us by the First Amendment. This freedom has been violated by President Obama’s HHS Mandate, a mandate which must be reversed.

Why Even Atheists Should Stand Against Presidential Mandates

If Presidents of the future will be permitted to issue mandates like the HHS Mandate, without popular vote, without Senate or House vote, and without Supreme Court evaluation, what mandate will the NEXT President of the United States, who may not belong to your favorite political affiliation, decree?

I may not like President Obama’s mandates.
But others, including atheists, would not like President Romney’s mandates
or President Rick Santorum’s mandates
or President Ron Paul’s mandates
or President Michelle Bachmann’s mandates.

The next President could issue a Mandate that imposes tax penalties not on Catholics, but on International Workers Union Members, FFRF Members, Solidarity Singers, and Madison LGBT activists- severe, crippling penalties. Then were would Craig, Annie, Genie and Bluebird be? The Mandate could include penalties for Wisconsin Sate Journal reporters, too, Doug.

We all benefit from supporting freedom and democracy.
We have to coexist, so progressives should realize that in 46 days the shoe might be on the other foot.
This is still a democracy, and Presidential mandates are thinly disguised despotic edicts.

These are some of the religious, ethical and cultural issues that Doug Erickson and the WSJ should be discussing, rather than spreading the speculations of fringe progressives on the motivation of Catholics.

August 1st, 2012 – Day of Infamy

President of the Media Research Center:

“August 1st is a day that will live in infamy for the First Amendment and the fundamental freedoms and rights we as a people have enjoyed since the founding of our nation.”

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Media Research Center Sign at New York City's Times Square

“The HHS mandate imposed on the American people is the beginning of the end of freedom as America has known it and loved it. August 1st marks the day when many family-owned-and-operated businesses lose their rights to exercise their faith in their daily lives.”

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“The government has told them — either comply with this mandate in violation of your faith and do what we tell you, or you will pay crippling faith fines to the federal government. With the stroke of a pen, the Obama administration has shredded the First Amendment and the Constitution right before our eyes.”

about Syte

Syte Reitz grew up in Queens, New York, in a family of Lithuanian immigrants who fled Nazi and Soviet domination during World War II. Her education includes a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, and post-doctoral work at Princeton University. Syte left her job as an Assistant Professor at Oakland University, Michigan, to devote herself to raising her children, and ultimately homeschooled them through the end of high school. She is a member of Madison's Cathedral Parish.